Is farm fresh key to more healthy students?

SAN ANDREAS - Faced with rising child obesity rates, pretty much everyone involved with feeding children who attend public schools agrees that kids need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

Dana M. Nichols

SAN ANDREAS - Faced with rising child obesity rates, pretty much everyone involved with feeding children who attend public schools agrees that kids need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

Figuring out how to do that hasn't been easy.

A new effort launched in February, the California Farm to School Network, is aimed at solving that problem, said Kevin Hesser, a teacher at Toyon Middle School, who is also one of two leads for the new Mother Lode Farm to School Network that includes Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado and Tuolumne counties.

Hesser said that the Farm to School Network divides California into 10 regions. In each region, the local leads are using face-to-face meetings and Internet-based applications to find local farmers willing and able to sell their products to school food managers.

In addition to the nutritionists, parents and school officials who usually attend such events, Hesser is hoping to attract farmers to the potluck.

"We want to find out who the producers are, the distributors are, that want to do that," Hesser said of the proposal to increase the use of fresh local food in schools.

Meanwhile, the Farm to School Network region that includes San Joaquin County and Stockton does not appear to be moving ahead as quickly.

Brandie Banks-Bey of the Central Valley Regional Obesity Prevention Program in Tulare is the Food to School Network coordinator for the nine-county region that stretches from Kern to San Joaquin counties.

Banks-Bey said she is still in the process of hiring someone to identify potential network members in the nine counties. "We haven't actually reached out to identify those folks," she said.

In part, that may be because many school districts in the Central Valley are already making use of Aglink.com, an Internet business launched two years ago that allows school food managers to shop online for locally grown produce.

"It has taken off like wildfire," said Jana Marin, a Merced County almond farmer who started the website two years ago with her husband, Rob. Jana Marin said sales had doubled this year, the second the business has been in operation.

The website makes it possible for a school district manager to use a single purchase order to buy food from many different farms.

Among the districts using Aglink.com is Manteca Unified, which nutrition advocates recognize as a leader in farm-to-school efforts.

Patty Page, Manteca Unified's director of nutrition, said the farm-to-school effort there began five years ago with produce grown by vocational students on the district's own farm.

This year, however, the district hasn't had any produce from the farm, because the farm supervisor, Ryan Costa, was promoted to another position. Fortunately, Aglink.com has helped fill the gap.

Both Hesser and Page said that getting children to taste-test food has been key to the success of introducing more fresh local food.

In Calaveras Unified, an expanding school garden program has allowed more children each year to harvest, prepare and taste fresh vegetables.

Page said Manteca Unified has been using classroom taste testing and peer pressure to introduce more fresh foods to children who might not be accustomed to it.

"They don't want to be the only ones in the classroom not tasting it," Page said.

Page said another key has been preparation: Apples need to be sliced into kid-friendly pieces to ensure they will be eaten and not wasted. Same thing with jicama, now a popular Manteca Unified treat.

That, however, requires hiring enough staff to prep food and having enough kitchen space to work with it. Page said she's aware that many districts don't have the resources and so are forced to rely on less healthy foods with a longer shelf life.

"Some of the smaller school districts are really at a disadvantage," Page said. "We also have the buying power to be able to do things and also to get the produce delivered to the individual sites."

Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 607-1361 or dnichols@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/calaverasblog and on Twitter @DanaReports.